Shi Kong Xing Shou
Shi Kong Xing Shou'' (時空星獸, translated as Space-Time Star Beast and also known as 星空神獸, or Mythical Beasts of the Starry Sky) is a Pokémon-esque role playing game developed by Vast Fame and was released on July 18, 2001. A ROM of this game was dumped from a multicart, and is available for download.http://fuji.drillspirits.net/?post=86 Story The game tells the story of a young boy named Ballot whose father is a brilliant astronomer. One day, his father makes an unusual discovery: the moon is glowing a blue hue. Two days after this discovery, Ballot's father disappears, only leaving behind his journal as to where he went. Not only that, but due to a strange meteor shower caused by a vortex in space, the creatures of Earth have mutated into "Star Beasts" including Ballot's faithful pet dog, Whitey. With his new-and-improved pet, the Blue Soul Dog, by his side, Ballot goes on an adventure to find his father and discover the secrets of the Star Beasts. Overview Gameplay System The game involves the main player collecting Engine Crystal pieces (動力晶片) in order to power an ancient spaceship once used to divert a similar event in the past. The game itself is a mix between Pokémon and Digimon; you encounter Star Beasts during your travels which you can either fight or capture using Pokéball-style items called Capture Orbs. Boss monsters can't be captured, and there's no nicknaming feature in the game. You can have up to six beasts with you at all times, and the other beasts you've captured are stored in PCs. Unlike Pokémon, there is no multiplayer support such as trading or battling. There is also a Pokédex-type device, except there's no search function and it only provides basic trivia on the beasts; there's no stats, battle cry, or nest-searching function. Star Beasts have stats similar to Pokémon; Hit Points, Attack (攻擊), Defense (防禦), Special Attack (法力), Special Defense (魔防), and Speed (速度). Strangely, you can only view their Special Attack stat when they level up. There are 8 types of the Beasts : Fight (鬥), Light (光), Shadow (闇), Fire (火), Water (水), Wood (草/木), Earth( 土), and Air (飛/風). One thing different about the game from Pokémon is that if your team faints, you're not sent to a Healing Center. Instead, the battle ends and your monsters are brought up to 1 HP. This happens even if just one of your beasts faint. Another thing to note is that this game lacks balance. For example, One-Hit KO moves have high accuracy, Some of high-damage inflicting moves (like Close Combat (無雙)) have too much PP for it, Shop and Beast Center are available at most places, and Star Beasts can be inflicted with multiple status ailments, such as paralysis, poison, and sleep, all at once. One monster, Fungus Fairy, is a prime example of this disbalance. One aspect that the game shares to Digimon is that each of the main heroes have their own Partner Beast. Partner Beasts can only be used by that specific character (meaning only Ballot can use Bladeberus, Buck can only use Beattro, etc.) If the player changes characters, the previous person's Partner Beast is replaced with the new character's beast. So if the player switches from Ballot to Lante, then Bladeberus will be replaced with Muserode in the player's roster. Each Partner Beast has its own stats, and these stats and levels aren't carried over to the next player's Partner Beast, so each one needs to be raised individually. Partner Beasts can't be deposited, and each have a special function in the overworld, such as hopping over pits, allowing the player to move along water, or cut down obstacles blocking a path. Items Items are separated into three categories : Consumables, Equipments, and Key Items. Balls (膠囊) and Technical Machines (秘技) are categorized in Consumables. Equipments can be held by beasts, and can be used repeatedly. They can: Recover HP during battle, Prevent status effects, Boost attack, or Reduce damage. There are 50 TMs in the game, but some of them are missing. Piracy The sprites for many of the Star Beasts are edits of character sprites from Pokémon Gold and Silver , Keitai Denjuu Telefang Power and Speed, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children, and the ''Mega Man'' series. None of the pirated sprites are pixel-for-pixel perfect; they tend to be either larger or smaller than the originals. This suggests that the artists most likely redrew the sprites by hand, as opposed to ripping them straight from the original games' ROM files. Other Releases Waixing released a copy of Shi Kong Xing Shou. The cartridge is yellow, like most Waixing Game Boy cartridges, and has a completely different picture on the box and cartridge which has no connection to the game whatsoever. There have been a few title screen hacks, as well. Playable Characters They are briefly introduced in the game's intro, but their names are not revealed until you meet them. (From top-left to bottom-right): *'Ballot' (巴洛特) - The main protagonist of the game. Ballot is a 12-year-old boy who is the son of a brilliant scientist and astronomer. He's very energetic and somewhat rash, but his heart's in the right place. He's on a quest to find the whereabouts of his father and uncover the mysteries of the Star Beasts. His partner Beast is Bladeberus '''(藍靈犬') - approximately translated as 'Blue Soul Dog'), and is the only Partner Beast who doesn't have a special ability in the overworld. *'Buck''' (巴克) - Buck is a robot boy has the revolutionary ability to not only possess A.I., but also emotions. Due to his flawed physical design, he can't express all the emotions in ways like laughing or crying, and his speech capability is imperfect. Despite these humanoid features, he still dreams of one day becoming a real human. He lives in State of Science (科技城) with his creator, Professor Leo (雷歐). His partner Beast is Beattro (機械鳥) - translated as ' Mechnical Bird') which can carry the team over small pits (this function isn't available until the end of Episode 1). Buck becomes available during Episode 1. *'Nina' (妮娜) - A young lady who lives at the Shanda Farm (産達農場), located south of Roughyrough City (多魯市). She is rather naive, but this is because of her caring personality. Her brother, Mark (馬克), had become seriously injured due to his sheep becoming restless from a mysterious coffee scent. Nina works restlessly to find a way to heal her brother, whom she holds close to her heart. Her partner Beast is Electreep (小綿羊 - approximately translated as 'Small Cotton Sheep') who can eat Spikey Weeds that block pathways. Nina becomes available during Episode 2. *'Claude' (克勞德) - Claude is a young man who resides in Skypolis. He often hangs around with the animals in Woody Sea (綠林海). Despite his mysterious appearance, he's acutally a kind person who really loves animals. He has a strong crush on Nina, and will do whatever it takes to protect her. He's also the son of the president of Banglin Co. Ltd (邦林企業). His partner Beast is Chromanix (鸚鵡獸 - translated as 'Parrot Beast'), who allows the team to communicate with animals characters. Claude becomes available during Episode 3. *'Helen' (海藍) - Helen is a mermaid who became a human to be with Anton (安東), a scientist in Dong-yu city (東漁市) whom she has a big crush on. She holds a deep dislike towards other humans, but befriends Ballot and crew due to their kindness. Her partner Beast is Merlith (人魚, translated as 'Merperson') which grants the team the ability to travel through water. Helen becomes available at the end of Episode 4. *'Lante' (藍特) - Lante is a boy who lives with his parents on a ship out at sea. He loves music and is often seen playing his flute to soothe his mind. He has the ability to hypnotize people with his music, but he never uses it for evil. His partner Beast is Muserode (音樂靈, translated as 'Music Soul') who technically doesn't have a special ability, but Lante's hypnotism can be considered its special ability. Lante becomes available during Episode 5. *'Newton/Randt¹' (雷德) - Newton is an excellent scientist who researches about dimensions. He's quite egotistical, boasting about himself a lot, and has a habit of exaggerating things to ridiculous proportions. Newton is working tirelessly trying to revive Tree of Divine (神木). His partner Beast is Signaliton (時空獸, translated as 'Space Time Beast') who can help the team pass through dark matter. Newton becomes available during Episode 6. *'Mitt' (米特) - Mitt is a young boy who recently lost his parents to a bear attack. Shocked by his parents' death, he became unconscious and resides in the hospital at State of Dreaming Star (星夢城). He takes after the work of his father, who's a scientist similar to Ballot's father. He's weak both physically and emotionally, lacking confidence in himself. His partner Beast is Drawvile (彩繪精, approximately translated as 'Drawing Elemental') who can make a random item appear on the spot. This can only be used five times and has a one in five chance of failing, but the number of uses can be restored by healing at a Healing Center. Mitt becomes available at the end of Episode 7. : ¹ The Chinese characters in this particular character's name (Lei De) actually translate to "Randt" but the name used in the fan-translated walkthrough is "Newton." Glitches *The "Pokédex" becomes full of data once you save the game, reset, and load the save file. This happens in the multicart as well, but this does not happen in the single-cart release. Some emulators eliminate this glitch, however, meaning that the glitch is likely an emulation error. *When you use Roar (狼嚎) while in boss battles, the game will crash and wipe out your save data. *If you have 5 or more Beasts in your deposit system and you take out the beasts to left them 4 or less, The graphics will crash and you have to wait for a while. *Place changing will take over 10 seconds. *Some of the character's names display wrong especially with later partners during dialogue. *Rarely the game crashes when you use moves; It'll wipe out your save data. Gallery Shikong_cart-300dpi.png|Cartridge of the original Taiwanese release. Multis-300dpi.png|Various V.Fame multicarts featuring the game. Shikong_guidebook_cover-200dpi.png|Cover of a guidebook for Shi Kong Xing Shou and Sheng Shou Wu Yu. Shikong_waixing all-200dpi.png|Complete Waixing release of Shi Kong Xing Shou. tumblr_mls7hw1bpK1soj8d7o1_500.jpg|Box of the original vast fame release. Trivia *This game was released exclusively in Chinese. No English-translated version is known to exist. *This game got an official walkthrough along with Sheng Shou Wu Yu. *The game's composer, Yishen Liao, worked on the soundtrack for other Taiwanese games such as Barver Battle Saga: Tai Kong Zhan Shi. *In the same year, Vast Fame released another Pokémon clone called Shui Hu Shen Shou, which is based on the Chinese novel Water Margin, and shares the same gameplay engine as Shi Kong Xing Shou, albeit more polished. *This game got a re-release in China by Waixing in 2003 under the title "異度空間" (Inner Senses). The game's intro was removed, was given a new title screen, and features a third option at the title that allows the player to start a new game with all cheats enabled (maxed-out money, 99 of all items, etc.) References Category:Games Category:Game Boy Color games Category:RPG games Category:Vast Fame Category:2001 video games